Industry stats indicate the number of greetings sent via SMS in China during the recent Lunar New Year might have dropped for the first time, as more users are turning to instant messaging apps like Weibo and WeChat.

SmartFoundry, an application programming interface platform, will allow software developers to leverage the telco's voice calling and SMS capabilities to make it easier to create apps and services. Other network functions to come next.

Growing popularity of apps such as WeChat and Weibo, which enable users to send out greetings during the Chinese New Year, have substantially encroached revenue from voice call and SMS--the main income of traditional telecom players in China.

As smartphone apps such as iMessage and BlackBerry Messenger usurp the traditional role of SMS, Optus has said that by developing its own apps, the company would seek to protect itself from further encroaching on its territory.

Google account holders will soon be seeing an invitation to opt-in to a 2-step verification sign-on feature being offered by the company, a online deadbolt that makes it harder for someone to hack into your account.The feature, which has been available for Apps customers and is now being offered to all account holders, adds a second step of entering a code that is sent to the user's mobile phone - either by phone call, SMS text or a smartphone app.